Ephesians 4
“Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. 4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. 5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all. 7 However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ…
11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.
12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
How each position is a gift…
Apostles equip everyone to be mobilized to take more territory for the Kingdom.
Prophets equip people to hear from God more clearly.
Evangelists equip people to win more souls to Christ.
Pastors are equipping people to care more for each other.
Teachers show themselves to be a gift to the church because they are equipping people to learn more.
Excerpt From Jeff Leake: “Church Family Governance”
Purpose of the 5 Positional Ministry Gifts
1.)
2.)
3.)
Maturity means not being ruled by our emotions, but living a life that is in alignment with God’s instruction.
God gives us the gift of
Just because you have had
How do we honor the 5 Ministry Positions that Paul calls a “Gift” to the church?
1.) Apostles
The way we honor an Apostle:
By staying where Paul sent Him, Timothy was joining the
2.) Prophets
The way we honor a Prophet:
Jonah 3
“Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh…Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: …Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.”
When God speaks, pay attention.
Matthew 13
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field. “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!
3.) Evangelists
The way we honor an Evangelist:
The Gospel (the good news of Jesus) should never get old to us!
We need to cherish the good news of Jesus enough to pass it on!
4.) Pastors
The way we honor our Pastors:
5.) Teachers
The way we honor a teacher: